Great Peace Not False Pleasure

Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. — Psalm 119:165 (ESV)

We live in a world that desires peace and yet the way people try to find peace is usually not the best way to find it. In fact, nine out of ten times, the pursuit of peace isn’t really the pursuit of peace, as much as it’s the pursuit of pleasure.

I think that people tend to pursue false peace. In other words, suppose you have a conflict with someone. Most people would rather avoid dealing with it, so they “pursue pleasure” by using avoidance. They pretend like the issue never happened, in the hopes of getting resolution. The problem with that though, is that it never works because real reconciliation doesn’t exist if there’s avoidance.

Pursing peace with someone means that you deal with the issue at hand until it is resolved by both parties. So, when Psalm 119:165 says GREAT PEACE have those who love your law, I believe what it means is that we get to have great peace when we’re obedient to the law and we actually do what Jesus tells us to. Plus, when we do that, we won’t stumble.

To me, that’s just a cool thought. Not always easy, but definitely the outcome is the best and worth pursuing.

Wouldn’t you rather have a short time of discomfort and be fully reconciled, over a long time of false peace and wonder when the bottom is going to fall out? I know I would.